Please take the time to get a breast exam and a mammogram. We care a lot for our families, but we have to take care of ourselves first to be here for them. Don't be afraid. We have a saying here: 'Every Woman Counts, Every Year.'

If ever the power of one to affect thousands of lives is evident, it's in the unstoppable compassion of Isabel Ruiz. She's the brains, heart, and catalyst behind creating new possibilities for the underserved in San Luis Obispo County, Calif.

Ruiz is involved if it has anything to do with breast cancer. A two-time survivor of the disease, she has reached out to help low-income and uninsured women get breast cancer screening by forming powerful public, private, and non-profit partnerships in the community.

She volunteers as the regional chair of Tell-A-Friend and Hispanic Tell-A-Friend, two American Cancer Society (ACS) programs where women call friends to support their getting mammograms.

She's also been active in ACS's Reach to Recovery, Relay For Life, and Daffodil Days. Ruiz serves on the regional and divisional boards of ACS.

Her pioneer work to pilot an ACS Hispanic Tell-A-Friend for cervical cancer will help women nationwide.

"Isabel really is the heart of our organization," said Sombra Ruiz (no relation), ACS director of community services in San Luis Obispo. "She helps other volunteers see the vision of ACS. She truly is a hero."

Ruiz also helps immigrants when they first arrive to help them adapt and become advocates for themselves. An immigrant herself, Ruiz was a doctor of obstetrics and gynecology in Lima, Peru, when she came to the US in 1973 to marry her fiancé.

A honeymoon baby kept her at home for a few years, but in 1976 she took the opportunity to work in the medical field as a director of a county family planning program that offered women's health services.

In 1987 her husband discovered a lump on her breast. The year before an area of fibrous tissue had been removed, so she didn't pay much attention to the lump for three months, thinking to herself, "It's just another fibroid."

She later had a biopsy, which tested positive for cancer. She opted for a mastectomy of the left breast and chemotherapy. There was no family history of the disease. She was 42 years old.

At the time mammography was costly and not widely used; insurance didn't cover it. This experience led Ruiz to work with ACS to help make mammography screening affordable and available to all women.

In 1989 to increase screening services in her community, Ruiz brought to the table radiology centers, community clinics, and hospitals to ask if anything could be done to provide affordable mammograms.

Paperwork was a major deterrent. The radiology centers said they needed a simple process. Working with the clinics in the community, Ruiz said they would make the referrals and do the paperwork.

The providers agreed, if the mammograms cost $120, they would charge $60. At the same time through fundraising events, Ruiz got private funding for uninsured women.

California's additional two-cent tobacco tax levied with the Breast Cancer Act of 1993 helped fund breast cancer screening and research, providing about $34 million annually.

The Breast Cancer Early Detection Program (BCEDP), sponsored by the California Department of Health Services (DHS), has been giving screening and diagnostic services to low-income women aged 50 and older since 1994. Now women are covered starting at age 40.

ACS has worked with the California DHS to secure additional funds. "Our division has been the leader," said Ruiz. "We now have funds for treatment for both breast and cervical cancer for every resident in California, regardless of immigration status.

"We've come a long way," said Ruiz. "I've seen a revolution in the past 15 years. But we still have a long way to go. In our region we are only reaching 20% of the population who are eligible. Many still don't know about it. We want to reach our ACS 2015 mission goals."

"One of the major barriers in our area is transportation," said Ruiz. "We've been most successful when we have had weekend clinics and when both breast exams and mammograms are scheduled at the same time. We have done as many as 24 mammograms and exams in one day."

Language is also a barrier, noted Ruiz, as is education.

"We are working with a population where the literacy level is less than a fourth-grade level," she said. "We're reaching them through churches, workplaces, and community groups."

Ruiz found that working with churches is critical. "We work closely with the Catholic church in our community, and the priests have been very supportive," she said.

"Also, you need individual and community outreach where people gather and frequent, like the Salvation Army," said Ruiz. "It's a wonderful opportunity to ask them, 'Have you had your mammogram this year?' and then have something to offer them."

ACS partners with a community clinic or church where there's space to do the breast exam. One of the ACS outreach staff brings the mobile mammography unit out to the community. Thus, they can do both at one time. "These types of arrangements have been very successful," said Ruiz.

Cultural beliefs are also a barrier. Ruiz explained that Latino communities are not accustomed to preventative health services, but only go to the doctor when they are sick.

Another barrier has been uninsured women worrying that if they have cancer, what are they going to do? "In California, if they find anything abnormal," said Ruiz, "we can tell them, 'don't worry that you are not insured, there are funds that will pay for treatment.' "

Ruiz speaks of the importance for women to care for themselves. "Please take the time to get a breast exam and a mammogram. We care a lot for our families, but we have to take care of ourselves first to be here for them. Don't be afraid. We have a saying: 'Every Woman Counts, Every Year.' "